Healesville SES needs your help

Lucy Aston, Heather Storen and Andrew Worley at the Healesville SES Unit. Picture: JED ALNYON

By Jed Lanyon

Healesville SES is on the lookout for new volunteers to boost its member numbers.

Lucy Aston, section leader for recruitment at Healesville SES, said the unit was really inclusive and accepted everyone.

“We need anybody as long as you’re over 18, we don’t care who you are or what job you do. We will happily have you,” she said.

The Healesville SES Unit has about 20 people on hand at the moment.

“There’s a lot of training that is also useful outside of the SES, like for your job or just general outdoor life,” Ms Aston said.

Some of the many different training opportunities include road crash training, chainsaw training, safely working at heights, truck licensing, flood and storm response, traffic management and urban search and rescue.

Volunteer Andrew Worley said: “There are roles for everybody regardless of how little time they have available.”

Members of the Healesville SES team shared why they found volunteering to be so rewarding.

“You make really good friends,” Ms Aston said.

Mr Worley said: “If I had to pick one thing, it’s giving back to the community that we live in, that’s the biggest one.”

Healesville SES will be holding an open day on 18 May featuring a sausage sizzle, road crash rescue demonstrations, Patty the platypus mascot and activities for kids.

The unit invited prospective volunteers to attend one of its weekly meetings to learning more.

Healesville SES is at 18 Argoon Road, Healesville. Call 1300 842 737 or visit www.ses.vic.gov.au to learn more.